Monday, July 29. 2013

This was a big day at the steam shop.All activity was focused on 1630 and the
first testing of the boiler completely full of water and under some pressure.

It is a fairly lengthy process to set the boiler up for
pressure testing.The boiler and water need
to be fairly warm (about 100 F) for testing. So aside, from pumping 2500 gallons of water
from the milk car to the boiler, there is about 5 hours of circulating the
water thru the gas fired pool heater to bring the whole system up to an even
temperature.

Starting in the morning it was late afternoon before the
whole system was at temperature.During
that time we spotted and corrected minor leaks around the inspection and dome
covers.

Refitting the inspection cover

Removing the dome cover to fix the seal gave this
interesting shot into the open dome.The
boiler is now about as full of water as it can be.

Just about as full as can be

With everything sealed we started to apply pressure to check
for leaks.In general, we were fairly
pleased with the way that the work we have done stood up to pressure.There were maybe 20 small to tiny leaks disclosed
around tube ends.In retrospect one
mistake was that we did not fix leaks around two super heater flues in the
front tube sheet.These were very small
sources of drips under gravity but became the limiting factor when we reached
150 psi.

The firebox patch was tight aside from a small spot in the
caulked joint with the mud ring which showed a slight leak at 150 psi.This should be easily fixed by a little more
caulking.A couple of rivets close to
the patch showed signs of weeping.This
is not surprising given the expansion and contraction associated with the
welding and can be fixed by a little work with the caulking hammer.

The nuisance and minor setback was an area that we had not
worked on.We found tiny pinhole cracks
in the sockets of two flexible stays in the back head.These may have been there when she last ran
as they are so small that we would probably not have seen any leakage from
under the lagging and jacket.Certainly
they would not have caused any loss of pressure in the hydro-testing.

However, knowing that they are cracked, even a pinhole, they
must be replaced.This involves grinding
off the inner end of the stay and, after heating the end of the stay, trying to
unscrew the stay from the socket.If this
fails you have the much more time consuming job of drilling out the stay at the
inner end.However, it worked well.By Saturday evening both stay bolts were out,
without the need to drill either.In
this view you can see the empty sockets after the stays were removed.

Stays removed from the problem sockets

On Sunday I started cutting one of the sockets off from the
back head and, in the afternoon, Mike and Tom completed the job.So both of the sockets shown above are now
gone and we are ready to fit the new sockets.Tom will then need to drill and thread two new stay bolts so they can be
refitted.This will mean no pressure testing
next weekend but hopefully all will be back and the leaks fixed by 8/10.

On this basis, I met with the FRA inspector on site Sunday
and we scheduled the formal hydro test for 8/18, subject to a successful second
stage test for leaks the previous weekend.

Just about all effort was concentrated on 1630.However, a big event was that both Bill Chyna
and Glenn Parkhurst visited.Glenn for the
first time since his motor cycle accident in May. Glad to say they were both in good form and
Glenn is hoping to be able to join us again when he has his prostheses fitted
in the next few months.

Bill and Glenn visit the shop

I am heading for the UK on business this week and will not
be around the shop next weekend.So I am
hoping to see a lot of progress when I get back in two weeks time !.

Nigel

Monday, July 29. 2013

Many of you follow IRM operating days on the webcams. In case you were watching Saturday, you probably asked yourself "WHAT WAS THAT?" On Saturday IRM hosted a group from the Great Northern Railway Historical Society as they were holding their annual convention in Chicago for the first time ever. I would be remiss if I did not publicly and loudly thank the many volunteers involved in setting this activity up, and running the special operations. There were probably over 30 individuals who contributed to the successful day including those in the Operating Department, Internal Combustion Department, many of my Freight Department volunteers, the Signal Department, more than I can mention by name or list here. We had a good time rolling out the red carpet for the GNRHS with special displays, docent led tours, exhibits, and a special MIXED train. This unusual consist (for IRM) ran a closed trip for their members and it included a photo runby at Seeman Road.

Runby

Here is the train at Seeman Road on the runby for photographers. The train was led by CB&Q 9255 and a matching CB&Q caboose 13572 brought up the rear. Behind the locomotive were four freight cars, five passenger cars, and three cabooses open for riders. Before and after the special trip that same consist ran our trips for the public. Something new, something different, and the public flocked to the cabooses.

At the Platfom

The special is loading now, ready to depart in only a few minutes. Behind the loco the first two freight cars were of course from the Great Northern; hopper 70104 and tank car X 1390. All aboard!!

Eastbound Special

Crossing Seeman Road and heading east, the train makes a very pastoral scene as it passes through the Illinois croplands. We had a well behaved photo line setup, and also our members flagged the local traffic on the road and warned us of approaching vehicles.

Wiring

I was very busy with the visiting group but managed a few pics of the hardworking volunteers, still at their restoration work. Eric Lorenz was adding more wiring to the front end of the Cleveland Transit System 4223. Amazing how many wires, cables, and harnesses need to be made up before the ceiling goes in.

Plowed and Primed

A good sized crew worked on Chicago Great Western X 38, completing paint removal, cleanup and priming of most of the side panels on the north side of the plow. Tom Bernacki is up on the roof, having worked up there on the needle chipper while Jim Leonard was a jack of all trades for the day's activities. Victor Humphreys, Bill Peterson, Ray Pollice also helped us along. Less than two weeks of good weather and some extra work days, led to this fairly fast transformation.

Thursday, July 25. 2013

This will be another short report since I was busy on the work and meeting with two potential contractors for an upcoming possible project. Things were also complicated since we operated our CGW 601 caboose in train service the last weekend, and on Sunday a window got broken in the cupola. That needed immediate repair since it will also be in train service this coming Saturday. Thanks to Buzz Morisette, Victor Humphreys, and Henry Vincent for cleaning up and making emergency repairs on Sunday, and then reglazing and reinstalling the window yesterday. The Wednesday Special Project group, led by Joe Luciani, is making good progress on restoration of the interior of our ICG steel caboose, but sorry, no pics. So, on to the Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow.

Prime Condition

A lot has been done in the last few days due to an immense amount of needle chipping on the north side by Kirk Warner and some extra time spent by Jim Leonard on Tuesday. Here, Victor Humphreys is completing the priming of much of the flat side panels near the rear of the plow.

Trapped

Simon Harrison had completed a lot of his day's project work and dropped by outdoors to say hello. WELL - we put him to work well and truly, wire brushing a triangular shaped side area underneath the curved plow wings. And then priming some hard to reach areas. THANK YOU Simon, come back and visit often!!

Moving Along

Dave Rogan chipped a lot of areas on the underside of the front plow roof., never a comfortable position to work. Look closely here and you will see one corner of the two new front windows that Buzz installed. And Jim Leonard completed some more chipping on the front roof top, and we got that primed before leaving.

Drawing a Crowd

Work is always interesting. It fascinates me, I could watch it all day. Victor is standing by to apply primer, Simon and Paul Cronin are busily cleaning more area, and John McKelvey and Henry Vincent came by to look, and discuss their work. Thanks to Henry who constructed a bridge ramp today to allow safer access to the Pullman car John McLoughlin this coming weekend.

Tuesday, July 23. 2013

Following Pauline's fine report on the restoration of the ACL diner, Birmingham I will update the reader with a small report on the other coach department project, the Rock Island 2612. Like Mike and his crew I have been leading another small crew in restoring to operation the 2612. We are finally seeing some progress towards that end. This coach will be used to help the museum make more $ from future events such as this years Thomas Days. Here then is the latest news.

Last side scraped but not primed

Andy Townsend wire wheeling

Andy starting to spray prime

Why are a few pictures foggy? Its the spray primer mist still in the air

Brian working on the wall before spray painting

Other projects being worked on in the coach dept are the EL 556 interior, and the CB&Q 1923 RPO buffer. The Birmingham needs further funds to continue the fine work Mike and crew have accomplished. Won't you consider a donation the next time you send a check to Irm? Again, please don't forget the Barn 14 building project!!. I am sure more news will be forth coming about this important project once the summer season ends. Please don't forget it. Thanks Roger Kramer

Tuesday, July 23. 2013

Clean up work has continued through July in the Birmingham diner following the repair of the floor in the galley corridor area. On July 7th Mike Baksic and Shelly Vanderschaegen worked on an empty corner where a cabinet had been removed many years ago. A sander was used to get down to the bare surface of the walls prior to painting them.

Mike Baksic cleaning the corner walls 7/7/13

7/14/13 capture of the painted corner walls

On July 14th Mike and Ray Mormann replaced the threshold between the galley area and the dining room and Ray secured a piece of trim which wrapped around the rounded corner near the threshold.

Threshold reinstalled

A tricky piece of trim was put back in place around the curve into the dining room

Shelly and Pauline Trabert washed down the corridor walls and ceiling outside the galley area. Linoleum will be installed in the future over the plywood which covers the repaired floor.

Galley exterior corridor 7/14/13

Shelly and Pauline did a basic clean up in the close quarters of the galley with the shop vac.

Shelly vacuuming the galley floor 7/14/13

Pauline stops working for a minute to smile 7/14/13

On July 20th Mike, Ray, and Mark Gellman focused on windows. Several windows had been put in upside down at some point in time and these were corrected. Deterioration around a couple of windows in the galley corridor had allowed water to seep inside the car which had caused the floor damage repaired earlier in the month. A scaffold was rolled around to the side of the car so sealant could be applied to the reseated windows to help prevent future leaks.

Mark and Ray securing a righted window back into the frame

Meanwhile, Shelly and Pauline cleaned all surfaces in the galley from top to bottom and then scrubbed down the floor. Things are starting to look pretty good in the Birmingham once again.

Sunday, July 21. 2013

It has been a really busy week for me at the museum hence a
rather late blog update!!.

I spent Wednesday at the steam shop with Phil and Ed. The main focus was on sealing all significant
leaks at the tube ends that showed when the boiler was filled with water.By end of Wednesday we were to the point that
, when filled well above the crown sheet, we had only minor dribbles and drips.

Saturday was a normal and fairly successful work day at the
shop and Sunday I spent working with the Jim West and the Operations Department
on switching for the Diesel Days event.So the blog is a little late this week !.

So what happened Saturday at the steam shop?.Overall a great deal was achieved although there
was one set back which meant that we were not able to get as far as our most
ambitious targets.

On 1630 I guess I had better try to answer one question I
was asked a lot at the event on Sunday - when will you be hydro-testing the
boiler?.The answer has to depend upon
what exactly you mean by hydro-testing.As the pre-requisite for moving on the steam testing we must demonstrate
that the boiler can be pressured using heated water to 125% of operating
pressure (so 225 p.s.i. in our case) and sustain that pressure with minimal
leakage for a period.Our current
expectation is to reach that point in about 3 weeks.However our path to that involves using
water, at first simply filling the boiler, then applying increasing pressure to
identify and test the correction of any leakage.This is the process that we are currently
following.On Saturday our objective was
to finally seal any leakage at the tube ends on simply filling the boiler and
then seal the boiler to allow some pressure to be applied.

·Following on from the work that Phil and I did
on Wednesday, a team including Phil, Collin, Eric and Sean took it in turns to
identify and seal the last little leaks that showed by carefully rolling the
identified tube ends slightly more.This
was hard and tedious work but, by early afternoon, the tube ends appeared to be
dry with the boiler full of water.

Tighten to correct the last drips

·Dennis annealed the copper sealing rings for the
two covers.

·In parallel with this one team worked on
cleaning the threads of the studs that attach the dome cover and another on
fitting the cover of the inspection hatch.These are the last two components required to seal the boiler and allow
pressure to be applied.

Cleaning threads on the dome studs

·All seemed to be going well until one of the
studs securing the inspection hatch sheared off during tightening.

Fitting the inspection hatch

Luckily everything seems to be
shaping up well on replacing the stud.Dennis was in the shop and did a great job of welding a nut onto the
broken stud and, to our great relief, this stood up to several of us pulling on
a large wrench and the stud unscrewed from the seating.In this view you can see the broken stud with
the nut welded onto it.

Broken stud prepared for extraction

This was very good news as the
alternative, had it failed to extract, would have been to grind it flush and
drill it out, potentially a day's work.The studs screwing into a boiler are quite unusual.The thread into the seating is tapered and
must be specially machined.However, by
end of day, Tom, Cameron and Bob had substantially machined the new stud and,
when I dropped by on Sunday, work was progressing.We should have it replaced ready to fit the
cover next weekend.

·With the stud out, work focused on fitting the
dome cover.This was the first time that
we had used the new boom for the forklift, which was made with this type of
lift in mind.It was highly successful.The cover was lifted by the forklift in the
shop and placed fairly easily.

The fork lift raises the dome cover

Phil and Jerry locate the cover

Working the securing ring into place

In place and ready to tighten

It was then tightened down without
issue.This was a great deal easier than
the previous method that required the locomotive to be pulled outside to use
the boom truck to place the cover.

·Jason tested the remaining gauges, which all
proved to be accurate, so these are now ready for refitting.

·Jane finished stripping the air tanks.These are now ready for painting.

·With Jim West's assistance we refilled the milk
car so should now have a water supply sufficient to support testing under
pressure.We have now run about 9000
gallons of water thru the boiler which should have removed most of the debris
from sand blasting.From now on we
should be able to re-circulate the water.

In other areas:

·Stu and Bob ran the wiring for the planer.The one remaining requirement is to locate a
breaker to fit our old style supply panel.

·Dennis was rebuilding the damaged grease keeps
for the axle boxes on #428.

So a lot was achieved this week.Hopefully next weekend we should be able to
fit the inspection hatch and start testing under pressure.

Nigel

Sunday, July 21. 2013

We spent most of the day yesterday on our Chicago Great Western X 38 snowplow. WOW! Two workdays in a row with good weather. So this entry will show you some of that work, not so many pics since I spent more time on the business end of a needlechipper rather than behind the camera lens.

Visitor

When I arrived about 8:30 I was greeted by long time member Kirk Warner who now lives in Florida. As always he was eager to get started and is a very hard worker. Out comes the needle chipper and here he is 'enjoying' the removal of a substantial amount of old paint on the right side of the plow.

Done

We finished a lot of small and some not so small touches on the left side of the plow in recent weeks and now that side is essentially DONE. The new door is glazed and installed (not without more drama as befitting that task), grab irons re-installed, truck and flanger blade primed and painted, and you have already seen the new windows on that side in previous entries.

Front End

In addition to all the paint removed by Kirk Warner we also continued chipping and cleaning the front left ramp on the plow. Victor Humphreys is priming that. Earlier, Bill Peterson worked on the front roof area, and another section is done.

A Stretch

Reaching all these areas to clean them is is a stretch. No less as Victor continues to prime what are hard to reach areas.

Get a Light

It was not all work on the plow for the entire Museum and many were occupied as the crews for Diesel Days. On one of my cooling breaks (it only got to about 90F in the shade but there was no shade), I noticed Bill Wulfert has many of the restored 50th Avenue platform light ready to install. I know this is not plow news but hope you will forgive me - we grow with diversity.

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Comments

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 07:42Subject to the general caveat that
a 100 year old steam engine can
always develop a last minute fault,
it is planned that #1630 will
operate 8/1 and [...]

CincyCubfan23 about Steam Department Update June 2015Wed, 07-29-2015 06:28Nigel - First, THANK YOU for all
the work you do (and everyone else
at IRM, for that matter)!
I believe I know the answer, but
I'll ask anyhow. [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 16:26Nigel,
All matters of practicality do
indeed have to be taken into
consideration.
That said, as another suggestion,
you may want to talk to your [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Mon, 07-27-2015 07:38Nathan,
All ideas to be considered and
depends on how this year turns
out.
The big reason we run Thomas over
the route we do is the space [...]

Nathan about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 19:24Hi Nigel,
Just noticed the comments and plans
for Thomas on this thread and am
intrigued.
It seems like a great idea to have
#1630 push the Percy [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sun, 07-26-2015 09:41Andrew,
No. The Thomas train will follow
its normal route.
There will be two event trains, the
Thomas train and the Percy train
(standard DOWT [...]

Nigel Bennett about Steam Department Update June 2015Sat, 07-25-2015 08:45Peter,
The Thomas days will be
significantly different this year.
There will be a Percy train as well
as a Thomas train and, subject to
the [...]

Peter D. about Steam Department Update June 2015Fri, 07-24-2015 23:51Greetings: Quick question regarding
steam operations...In addition to
Thomas, when would you expect a
steam locomotive to be on the
tacks. Thanks.